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Creeptastic!

12/26/2019

Out to Get You: 13 Tales of Weirdness and Woe
by Josh Allen ill by Sarah J Coleman

Librarians who work with children know that kids love scary stories: chilling tales reread until the spines break and pages fall out. They constantly ask for more fright-filled short stories. More. More. More.
Maintaining a selection of hair-raising tales is a never-ending task. Finding middle grade narratives with just the right amount of fright factor, but not veering into gristly gore can be a challenge.
J osh Allen has this covered with Out to Get You: 13 Tales of Weirdness and Woe. Stories are quick reads: tightly structured tales told briefly in a few pages and concluding with a macabre twist.

Each begins with an everyday encounter. Then the ordinary takes an unexpected turn and young readers wonder what will happen next. Warning: "what happens next" is not a "happily ever after." Example: There's a stain on the school cafeteria floor. When a stray dime lands on the spot, the coin instantly vanishes. What happens when something or someone much larger accidentally lands on the stain?

A teacher has perfected her use of "The Voice" to dominate and control her students. One small girl with mousy brown hair is not intimidated by this overbearing teacher. Instead, a tiny black box appears on the teacher's desk with the note "For all you've done, you deserve this."

Meet the boy who has been waiting all year for the frog dissection in biology. He can't wait to become a mad scientist, don a pair of gloves, and take a scalpel to the dead frog. When he begins to work on his specimen, something frightening happens.

Pay attention to the female characters. The girls are rarely helpless victims. They are often the perpetrators of some horrifying stuff. They can deliver their own forms of justice. Lesson: Don't mess with a smart girl!

Sarah J. Coleman's full-page eerie black ink drawings and a glow-in-the-dark cover complete the package.

Librarians would do well to order several copies of these middle-grade tales of terror. Satisfy young appetites for horror-lite with these creeptastic tales.

Copy provided by publisher.

Pub date: September 3, 2019 Publisher: Holiday House ISBN: 978-0823443666

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More than Bread

12/20/2019

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Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story
by Kevin Noble Maillard ill by Juana Martinez-Neal

Native American is not a past history of a vanished people and communities. We are still here.

This is a story of bread. But it's more than bread. Much more. This is a story of family. Of tradition. Of Native American pride.

Kevin Noble Maillard, member of Seminole Nation, Mekusukey Band shares a long-standing Indigenous special food: fry bread. Recipes for fry bread are as diverse as the numerous Native nations.

The sentence stem "Fry bread is..." introduces this delightful cultural staple. By turns it is food, shape, sound, color. flavor, time, history, place, nation, everything. Written in free verse, each concept fills the entire two-page spread. Replete with information and symbolism, each fry bread attribute is also a metaphor for Native Americans.

Familiar and foreign, old and new
We come together

Martinez-Neal has captured the warmth and closeness of family. Notice the infant, carried in the arms of various family members. This child is a part of the extended family, happily content with mother, grandmother, siblings. Each shares responsibility for this little one. Note: the child seems comfortable with any and all members of the community.

Illustrations make clear that there is no typical Native American. An array of hair colors and textures, a vast range of skin tones, and an assortment of various generations are all Indigenous people. One individual is pictured wearing eyeglasses and another walking with a cane.

Personal connections are embedded throughout. Names of family members and others involved with the book's creation are scattered across one page, some of the names handwritten. A picture of Aunt Fannie, who taught Maillard to make this traditional staple appears twice.

The Author's Note is an important and integral part of the story. Page by page, Maillard annotates and amplifies each concept with personal reflections and anecdotes. The Reference section is a numerated notated listing of sources. Maillard includes his recipe from fry bread. End papers are a bonus, enumerating large tribes, small tribes, rancherias, villages, and groups that have not yet received official status.

Making Fry Bread

If there is one thing that all Natives can agree upon about fry bread, it’s that everybody else's version is wrong,

Fry Bread brings back warm memories. When I was a college freshman, one of my roommates, Norma, was a Navajo from Arizona. She was very proud of her nationality and delighted in sharing Navajo culture with her roommates. She loved to sing, but not the hit songs playing on the radio. She sang traditional Navajo songs, with distinctive tonal patterns, and language. In my mind, I can still hear her singing. She was gentle and patient with us, helping us appreciate the Navajo Way.

For a treat, she would make us Navajo tacos. She never used a recipe. She just got out the flour and baking powder and went to work. Her recipe differed from Maillard’s. She didn’t use cornmeal or yeast.
I tried to replicate Norma’s recipe. I’m sure that this isn’t exactly the same, but my family appreciated my efforts. They liked them sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. As I shared my memories of Norma, I realized that this experience with fry bread was a celebration of rich culture. It’s true. Fry Bread is more than bread.

Fry bread reflects the vast, deep diversity of Indian Country and these is no single way of making this special food.
But it brings diverse Indigenous communities together through a shared culinary and cultural experience.
That's the beauty of fry bread.

Copy provided by publisher.

Pub date: October 22, 2019 Publisher: Roaring Brook Press ISBN: 978-1626727465

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Sip Slowly

12/16/2019

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Straw by Amy Krouse Rosenthal ill by Scott Magoon

Not everything’s a race. Some things are meant to be savored.

First there was a Spoon, then Chopsticks, and now Straw joins the trio of picture books featuring eating implements. Amy Krause Rosenthal’s fertile imagination gives Straw a distinctive personality and character trait. That’s right. Straw is his name so a capital letter is in order.
Here’s the thing: Straw has a compulsion to be first. He measures his consumption in relationship to the nearby straws, constantly comparing himself to others. With help from friends, he learns to slow down and savor the moment.
The text is chock full is delightful word play. "I think what you're feeling is called awe, Straw." Gentle message. Charming characters. It's better than a thick milkshake with whipped cream and cherry on top.

Scott Magoon's illustrations capture the anxiety of wanting to be first. He injects whimsy into the narrative, giving the straws expressive faces and body posture. Who knew a paper drinking straw could be so dramatic?

Straw’s tubular shape is highlighted with imaginative page design and orientation, inviting readers to turn the book and look at things in a new way,

There are not-so-subtle homages to the author scattered throughout. A mug of AKR root beer, a glass of lemonade with a cheery sunshine logo, even her signature yellow umbrella makes an appearance.

Making Things

Amy Krouse Rosenthal liked to make things: books, films, salads, something out of nothing, and wishes. This list is paraphrased from the foundation website.

In this spirit of making, I tried making things with drinking straws. Armed with a handful of plastic straws and my trusty glue gun, I got to work. Here are the results: A cardboard box maze, ready for a marble race. Mini rockets that launch with a puff of air. A tiny easel that holds a name card. Try having a marble maze relay or a rocket launch competition. Finish with a milkshake. Sip slowly.

Eat Up

Sample these Amy Krouse Rosenthal picture books.

Copy provided by publisher.

Pub date: January 4, 2020 Publisher: Disney-Hyperion ISBN: 978-1484749555

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Real Life Reporter

12/4/2019

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Cub by Cynthia L. Copeland

I know how it's supposed to work in seventh grade:
You are who the other kids say you are.
But I'm not OK with that.
I'll say who I am.

Established author Cynthia L. Copeland’s first graphic novel sparkles with wit and warmth.

Twelve-year -old Cindy navigates a tightrope of middle school complexities: shifting alliances among the microcosm of students, moving from platonic relationships to the first stirrings of romantic interest, and a growing awareness of the world beyond junior high school.

Divided into the three seasons of the school year, Cub introduces fresh-faced and free-wheeling Cindy entering seventh-grade. An individualist, she's not part of the vicious circle who take pleasure in taunting other students. She copes by appearing "dead," that is invisible and unresponsive to personal attacks.

When her former best friend Katie decides to join the mean students clique, Cindy discovers other interests and makes new friends. Her English teacher notes that she has potential as a journalist and arranges an internship with the local newspaper. Leslie, an up-and-coming investigative reporter, takes Cindy under her wing. She invites Cin to accompany her on assignments, teaches her interviewing techniques, constructively edits early attempts at investigative journalism, and encourages Cin to develop photography skills.

By spring Cindy has a contemporary hairstyle, a wider circle of friends, an awareness of the world outside the confines of her school, and increased self confidence. She finally admits to Leslie that she doesn't like tea, gently informs her mother that she wants to abandon the nightly ritual of curling her hair in rags, and summons the courage to advertise her talents as an artist for a summer job. Her persistence is recognized by her father. He praises her achievements and eventually offers to help her create a dark room.

Her success spills over into the lives of others. Her parents learn to appreciate and encourage her interest in journalism and accept her desire to assert herself. Her newly found friends support her. Even Katie asks to reestablish their friendship. Cindy wisely makes room for Katie, while maintaining her other friends and interests. Cindy learns that some of her preconceived ideas about people may not be true. She learns to rethink some of the labels she has placed on others.

Copeland frames her memoir within the larger context of world events: the Watergate break-in and subsequent resignation of Nixon, protecting the environment, the Vietnam War, and a push to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Interestingly the Issues of the early 1970’s continue to be relevant in 2020.

The narrative highlights the juxtaposition between life of a seventh-grader and larger issues on the world stage. One telling scene: after Cindy receives a camera as a gift, she studies and applies herself to learning photojournalism. When a friend makes an offhand request "Take a picture of me!" she responds "No way, you goofball. I'm taking photos for the newspaper."

Page and panel design are well-suited to subject matter. Cindy's typewritten reports fill an entire page and include Leslie's editorial markings. Images of typed text are background in several important scenes, giving prominence to Cin's evolving identity as a journalist. Significant events appear as headline banners. The scene in the newsroom on receiving accounts the Vietnam War's end spans the two-page spread with reporters furiously scrambling to report the news-breaking event.
Small details highlight the 1970's era: candy buttons attached to paper strips, flared jeans, troll figure collections, memories shown as a scattering of Polaroid snapshots.
Faces are rendered with simple eyes and noses. It's the expressive eyebrows and mouths, especially a mouth full of braces which poignantly reveal emotion.

Pitch perfect story of middle grade, Cub is a worthy and welcome addition to the graphic novel memoir canon that includes Guts, Smile, Roller Girl, Real Friends, and All’s Faire in Middle School. With braces flashing, Cindy careens through the town. Occasionally she falls down, at times doubts herself, but often succeeds spectacularly.

Uncorrected copy provided by publisher.

Pub date: January 7, 2020 Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers ISBN: 978-1616209933

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Creeptastic!

Out to Get You: 13 Tales of Weirdness and Woe
by Josh Allen ill by Sarah J Coleman

More than Bread

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story
by Kevin Noble Maillard ill by Juana Martinez-Neal

Making Fry Bread

Sip Slowly

Straw by Amy Krouse Rosenthal ill by Scott Magoon

Making Things

Eat Up

Real Life Reporter

Cub by Cynthia L. Copeland

Category

Archives

Barbara Moon

Creeptastic!

Out to Get You: 13 Tales of Weirdness and Woe​by Josh Allen ill by Sarah J Coleman

More than Bread

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story ​by Kevin Noble Maillard ill by Juana Martinez-Neal

Making Fry Bread

Sip Slowly

Straw by Amy Krouse Rosenthal ill by Scott Magoon

Making Things

Eat Up

Real Life Reporter

Cub by Cynthia L. Copeland

Category

Archives

Barbara Moon

Out to Get You: 13 Tales of Weirdness and Woe
by Josh Allen ill by Sarah J Coleman

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story
by Kevin Noble Maillard ill by Juana Martinez-Neal